DISRUPTING THE SIMULACRUM OF NORMALCY: Queer online activism and protest in Thailand

Abstract

This chapter examines how their activism on digital platforms has salience for re-understanding and requestioning queer resistances against dominant discourses. As a text of Queer protest, it urged readers to interrogate their everyday lives in the context of what Wittig conceptualized as ‘The Straight Mind’, Rich as ‘Compulsory Heterosexuality’ and Warner as ‘Heteronormativity’. The objective of Sirisak’s campaign is clearly to erode the conservative Buddhist ethos by arguing that its restrictions were, in fact, devised by people; thus, many of them can be similarly reinterpreted. Embracing people’s humanity lies at the heart of Buddhist teachings. Sirisak’s chada deliberately challenges layers of the Thai hierarchical power structure, as this type symbolizes kingship and divinity. Sirisak described under the image that ‘fighting with our bodies is the most valuable and powerful weapon above all weapons of violence, slander, humiliation with words, or even weapons of war’.